Pie in a Jar...oh MY!

A few weeks ago I came across this fabulous idea on the internet. Pie in a jar...Let me say that again...PIE...in a JAR!

Now, it's possible this concept is not as exciting to you as it is to me, dear reader...but seriously WHAT could be better? Especially as regards PIE? Let me convince you...Pie in a jar means more kinds of PIE, without having to try to STORE those pies. Pie in a jar means individual servings that I don't have to cut and try to put neatly on a plate. But even MORE exciting, pie in a jar means that the crust to pie filling ratio is greatly increased and that the eater of said pie gets the crispy edge bits ALL.the.way.around. Go ahead, take a minute and let THAT fantasy sink in.

From a strictly custodial standpoint...Pie in a Jar means that the baker of the pies can prepare the pies WELL in advance...slap a lid on them and freeze them in their little buckets of joy...and then pull them out days later (maybe WEEKS later)...take the lids off...fling 'em on a cookie sheet covered in tin foil...and bake them...no muss no fuss.

As is my custom, I found this idea...posted it on Facebook...and then promptly forgot about it for awhile. So when I remembered it the other day, just in time to make some for a gathering that's happening Friday, I decided it must be fate. I started rummaging through my supplies and found that I had enough of everything to make about 6 of these little babies...so I gathered the girls and I gathered the stuff an then...

We had a defugalty when one of our 6 jars went skidding across the counter and onto the floor. No matter...I run on munchkin power and they had it fixed...well, cleaned up...in a jiffy...


So onward and forward...first the pie crust must be smooshed (technical term - write that one down) into the jar and the edges prettied up. (This was gonna be a pecan pie, so no upper crust, in an upper crust situation the edges would need to be crimped...this was really just putting a pattern on the upper part so that it would crisp to perfection).


And then the pie guts poured in...


And then BAKED.


No, really look at this beautiful creation...


SO good.

Now, things I will do differently on the next batch...well, I'll follow this tutorial at Our Best Bites for getting the dough INTO the jars...we did this batch by cutting circles in the dough and stuffing it all in there...I think they have a better idea...

I also used a different pecan pie recipe. Bear has 'issues' with corn syrup, so I made this with all honey...and it was good, make no mistake...but a little too cloying in an already REALLY rich dessert.

If you google "pie in a jar", and I really think that you should, you'll find that I didn't fill mine as full as many folks are doing...I did that on purpose. The best part of this for me is the transport option, so I wanted to be able to put the lid on them, both before and after baking because I don't want to have to figure out how to transport glass cupcakes (essentially)...I want them to stay jars. I mean really, won't these be great on the Girly Trip? But if you like the poofy crunchy ones that you don't have to cart around, by all means, fill it to overflowing.

Now...I have to go. I have a bunch of these to make...because, well, we HAD to eat all of those for quality assurance purposes. You understand.

See ya around...

Geeeee-tarrrr....

Ah the Guitar!  I love the guitar.

Now, make no mistake...I do not PLAY the guitar.  As a person who sings, but has no particular talent for instruments, (although I can honk a mean pitch pipe, if I do say so myself.) I have ALWAYS loved the guitar...or rather "the guy with the guitar" who would show up places so that I could sing along.

I don't know for certain what my first memory of "the guy with the guitar" was...but I will tell you that by the time I was 9 or 10, I had a friend whose Dad always threw those parties where "the guy with the guitar" would show up. As these parties happened at least monthly, I had a lot of exposure. To this day, my musical tastes are affected by those folksy ballads.

Now, my Dad was one of those "guys with a guitar" for a good portion of my childhood.  My Dad was a pretty interesting person, musically.  Never really trained...I'm not positive that he didn't have piano lessons as a little kid but nothing beyond that...but give him a piano and he could pick out anything.  Sometime in the late 1970s, he got "into" the guitar.

He played and played and played until, just like the piano, he could pick out anything.  So, when, at about 9 years old, I WANTED a guitar, he was ALL over it.  Got me a little guitar...got me lessons...sat next to me and played...showed me how to tune the guitar to itself...all kinds of things.  I specifically remember learning to play "Peaceful, Easy Feeling".

But then, I stopped.  I don't remember any major life changing event the made me stop...my memories of the guitar just fade away.  By the time I was 12, I KNOW I was not playing at all because I remember watching a friend who really COULD play and thinking, "Wish I could play..."  And it's pretty much been that way ever since.

Somewhere along the way, where the guitars went was lost on me.  Guitars are not like pianos...pianos are REALLY hard to move and get rid of...guitars...not so much.  All I knew was that we'd HAD guitars in Pennsylvania and Florida, but by the time we got to California, we didn't have them anymore.

Now, my dad had been making noise for about 2 years about wanting to get a guitar again...but he hadn't been able to find a nice enough cheap one.  Christmas of 2008, mom and I found a little guitar ornament...with the promise that we WOULD find one.  By Christmas of 2009, I'd found one.  Costco had a little Fender on sale for $99...so I got one for our family and mom and I went in together and got one for Dad.

You should have seen my dad with that guitar.  It was a complete surprise.  He was SHOCKED...And completely entranced.  With the opening of the guitar, we lost him for the next couple of hours.  He sat there and plucked...and strummed and tuned and plucked some more.  He was re-figuring out all the songs he used to know and trying out all the chords he'd forgotten.  I honestly don't think that I've seen him THAT excited about a gift someone else gave him, and I was SO happy.

His excitement really struck a fire in us...and we practiced and practiced and were starting to get calluses on our fingers...

As for Dad, he took the guitar home and continued playing until February, when he died...

That guitar was the first thing that I saw when I walked into the RV after arriving in Arizona after his death.

I don't want to lose this post to the melancholy into which it seems to be headed...because for the most part, this will not be melancholy...but I wanted to be clear WHY we quit playing for awhile.

During the week that we were in Arizona for his memorial, the guitar played another role.  See, my cousin came.  Now I hadn't seen my cousin in 13-15 years...but it turned out that he had something from Dad.  Dad had given my cousin our guitars some 20 years before, so he showed up with my Dad's guitar from my childhood...and the guitar my little 9 year old self played.  It was pretty cool...and pretty gut wrenching...and memory jogging.

My brother and I had a great time playing with those guitars.  He got to hear the story of our Christmas gift.  He had a few stories of his own.  And I shared the teeny tiny bit that I'd learned at that point...



When it was time to go home, Uncle BakerMan and I had decided that he would take Dad's old guitar and I would take my little-girl-guitar and the one we'd bought Dad at Christmas...that would give me 3 for the 3 girls so that we could play.

Right.

Well, as I said...the guitar has played a pretty big role in my life this last 9 months.  Thankfully, we had to wait until April, when mom got here, for Dad's guitars...but our guitar was sitting right where I'd left it, in my bedroom.  Can't tell you how many times I just sat there and looked at it.  Can't tell you how many times I told one girl or another, "Not right now" and sadly, even scolded them for strumming it while it stood on it's stand.  Can't tell you how many times I've grieved while I watched the dust collect.

Last week was actually a really hard guitar week.  I wished that I knew how to play it over and over because then I could take it camping.  I mean, what could be better than a girl, a guitar and a campfire?

So, this week I made a decision. For crying out loud...how is a dusty guitar a "good" memory of my Dad? So I took them ALL out...dusted them off...found a place to put them RIGHT OUT in plain site. AND.


And, I started the girls learning the teeny tiny bit that I know.  And played a little myself.

Time for some new memories...

Some of them a little wistful...


Some of them downright funny...


All of them linked SO HARD in my mind.

Miss you, Daddy.

See ya around...

Camping 2010

This is another one of those posts being written after the fact…but I’m afraid that SO many people know the why and where of the trip that this will be no surprise.

So without further a do…Please be aware that Stack and Family went camping for Stack’s most MOMENTOUS…errr…22nd Birthday!!! That’s right, I was 22 again this weekend.

Now it didn’t start out that way….but remember last week when the girls NEEDED a team building project…after that, they BEGGED and PLEADED to go on a church camping trip that we’d heard about a month or so ago that was happening on my birthday weekend. “Oh PLEASE…OH PLEASE, Momma!! Please!” they said and did that eye batting and kissing thing that they do.



They had a couple of things going for them…the first being that a bunch of people that we KNEW were going…the second being that I used to REALLY like camping. (But then we moved to a place that has actual seasons that mean you can’t just camp whenever…then we had a baby…then another…then we just stopped thinking of it as an option. ) The third and might I say, THE KICKER, was that it was my birthday and a big one and I really wanted to play.

So off we went.

Let me first say that the packing was incredibly hard. The last time I camped was with one GUY who could really take care of himself…and one little girl who could be stuffed in just anywhere…and it was summer…in California.

This time…Bubba wasn’t going to get to us until late in the day (he has that pesky job that we absolutely wish to keep) so it was pretty much on me. And this time I have a GUY who can really take care of himself…and one little girl who MOSTLY stuffs in just anywhere who is VERY short of clothes for some reason…and two BIG girls who are still at the HELPING phase…which is sometimes terrific and sometimes problematic…but it’s also ALMOST winter, which meant making sure that we had enough cold weather gear. The first night was slated to be the coldest night yet…and if it met it’s predictions came in a about 36 degrees…when the second night came and it was in the 40s we were feeling pretty warm.

So there was ALL of the stuff, 2 tents/tarps, 4 air mattresses, 5 sleeping bags, food, kitchen gear, wood, brickets, clothes for all but Bubba…oh, and KIDS…had to fit into that little ole van. It was STUFFED to the gills.

AND…I was running late all day. So we didn’t actually pull IN to the campsite until about 5:30 pm…not very long before dark…and still 2 hours ahead of Bubba.

Lest you think for one more minute that this lead to any kind of a BAD trip…think again!!

We had caravanned with a friend (Mrs. H) so when we got to the site, we met up with her husband, Mr. H and several other families that were already there and already set up. Mr. H called to Mr. G to come over and help me set up (I’d really just asked WHERE on earth to put the tent) and in they rode on their white chargers with extra hands and fire and an AMAZING air pump that plugged into my car battery and made short work of our mattresses. With the help of MY crack team…they had that tent up in a jiffy.

Okay…so NOW we just had to find stuff. In pretty short order I realized that all those mattresses were NOT gonna fit into even our big tent. Luckily, I brought the old purple tent. So Beanie and I got started setting up that tent. By now it was dark and we had the car going for the headlights. Not ideal! Also, not far into the setup, I discovered that one of the tent poles was broken so, as far as my experience and ingenuity was concerned…that tent was kapootz! Turns out Bubba had better ingenuity in this case, but not until QUITE a bit later in the night.

As the camp got set up and we ran into a few road blocks, I realized that it was getting late and the kids were getting hungry and my big “burger” fantasies were just not gonna happen tonight. So I as I pulled the last quesadilla off the pan for the girls…Bubba arrived.

The next part happened in such quick succession, I’m not sure what happened first. I just know that Bubba got there. Now in no particular order…

I told Monkey Face to eat her quesadilla…

I told Bubba about the tent…

Bubba told Monkey Face to eat her quesadilla…

Bubba started scheming ways to use the tent anyway…

I told Monkey Face to eat her quesadilla…

I started pulling the seats out of the van for the worst case scenario…

I chased Monkey Face back to the table and told her to eat her quesadilla…

AND THEN…
up from the murky street I hear the crunch, crunch of shoes on gravel…and then the unmistakable strains of “Happy Birthday toooooooo Yoooooooooouuu!” And who should happen to “show up” but the leaders of our care group (from church) Mr. and Mrs. W and their kids and one other kid they dragged along…SINGING to me…and BRINGING me a chocolate cake with CHOCOLATE frosting and a gift…and water bottles…and plates and forks and napkins…basically everything we would need so that we wouldn’t have to FIND it to enjoy the party.

I was FLOORED! Seriously! And ENCHANTED! Seriously!

Lanterns make it hard to get a good shot...but believe it or not...that's Beanie...and that lady in there is Mrs. W.



They made it sound like not a huge deal…coming out to a campsite with cake and presents and stuff…but …See I’ve been to the Ws home and it’s about 25-30 minutes from mine. The camp site was EASILY an hour from my house, so even if they lived on the way…they still had to come 25-30 minutes over with the cake and the present and the kids. Just for me. Just for my birthday. It was wonderful…and I pretty much floated the rest if the evening.

There was SO much more to the trip…for instance, Bubba did figure out how to use the tent with only two poles…and EVENTUALLY Monkey Face ate her quesadilla…but I think that’s all I’m posting for now.

Except pictures of course...if you follow this blog at ALL, you know I'm big on, "I'll get to that later..." and, frankly, later rarely comes...

We played a couple of great games...in this one, we all took hands across a circle...each hand holding someone else...and then tried to untangle and end up in a circle again. Our team only ever succeeded in making two circles intertwined...but the other team...the one with the littler kids manage it quite a few times...



What usually happens when you have a big ole group of people with a lot of kids??? That's right, a pyramid or two, of course...





And they also got a bunch of the kids in a circle, each one with his or her feet on the back of the kid behind them...and made them do push-ups. Well, to be honest, made them try to do PART of a push up...seemed like a great idea...and there was definite giggling...but the collapsing was the best part.



We had a terrific time out there...even though it was a bit cold at night...and made some great memories. I can not WAIT until spring!!!

I came home to find that a very good friend’s brother was struggling for his life…and so I’ve been blessed to keep three of her little girls with me. Please pray for him, he was doing a little better last night…but I know how stressful this wait is for all of the family.

Until next time, dear reader…

See ya around…

Preliminaries...

Yes, indeed, we ARE going camping.

We haven't been camping since the summer of 2002. That's when this picture was taken...Isn't she cute?


But you know what? I wanna. I used to love to camp. But then we moved here and the seasons for camping are so different than California...and then I was pregnant...and then had these nurslings...and then toddlers...and honestly we were too skeered to try to camp with littles. So we just fell out of the habit of thinking of camping as an option.

But, there is this opportunity to go camping coming up...and I wanna go.

So I had my girls learn to put up the tents this week. That's right, TENTS. It's sort of a long story.

I know you all believe my children to be little angels sent down from heaven to smile at you. That's not exactly true.



See, the leaving of the Grandma...well the preparing of the Grandma to leave really put my girls a little out-of-sorts...so the camping trip offered up a chance to learn a little team building...



They set up the purple tent 3 times...the first time was outside...but it was SO windy I was afraid we were setting up a flying experiment...so the other two times were set up in our play room...it just BARELY fit.



But they managed it...and by the time they were done, they were a team again...


Thank heaven, because I thought I was gonna have to pinch 'em...



Okay...but I promised to explain TENTS...

Well, you see we THOUGHT we were going to have buy another tent for the trip. I mean we maybe coulda squished into the purple tent. But then, as I was diggin out the rest of the gear, guess what I found...that I'd COMPLETELY forgotten that we owned...



And the process started all over again...


On the bigger tent they needed someone taller...ME...


You'll be pleased to know that we actually DID get a tent stake mallet...I refused to allow my meat tenderizer to be part of the camping gear...I mean what would I use when I next need to hammer a nail into the wall if it's packed with the camping stuff?


They are getting to be a pretty crack team of shelter builders...can't wait to use these new skills for real. Stay tuned.

See ya around...

And she's off...

Well...it's actually been a week.

Tuesday before last, Grandma's dear friends Gigi and Baba (names changed cuz it's how I roll) pulled up in their 5th Wheel to sweep Grandma back to Arizona. Thankfully they didn't sweep her RIGHT away, or there would have been far more tears.

They stayed in the area until Saturday morning. We did a few things with them of which there were no pictures. They play the most interesting game of Yahtzee ever.

But on Friday night, we decided to have a fakey little Thanksgiving Dinner. Just your basic rotisserri chicken with the fixings that we LIKE to make, like cranberry sauce and mashed taters and soooped up stove-top-ish stuffing...and salad, cuz I didn't feel like any actual-prep-needed veggies...and sparkling cider. We pulled out the pretty glassware and the pretty-but-plastic everyday...ehem "china"...and the same old, mismatched, nicked cutlery we use everyday and had a real meal with these people that we've grown to love so much and adopted as another set of grandparents.

It was great. Really REALLY great.

And then Miss Baba pulled out one of her passions to share with the girls.

Miss Baba is a rock person...rock collector...rock cutter...rock placer-into-pretty-settings-and-make-actual-jewelry-out-of-something-that-used-to-be-just-a-rock person...And she had a lot to show us. Sadly, she hadn't brought any of the finished jewelry. It was already packed to go...we'd gotten to see it earlier in the day back at the RV...but no pictures. Sad.

She started with just Beanie and Bear...

But it wasn't a terribly long time before she'd sucked us ALL in...


We sorted and wetted SO many stones. You wet the cut stone to see how it will looked when it's polished. And I, for one played with them...looked at the light shining through them...


Lined up Bubba's head so it looked like I was about to SQUISH it as I was admiring the rock...in the second one the boys actually KNOW what I'm doing...hence the laugh...


HA! Mr. Gigi, I SQUISH your head!


This is my favorite one...I love that color blue...A.LOT. It is also nearly the color of my daughter's bedroom ceiling which I also love A. LOT. You know, she still won't let me move all my stuff into and take over her room so that I can look at it all the time. (sigh)


We had quite a good time with that. But there was another very important person involved in this visit. Well, not exactly a person...but loved...VERY loved.

This is Barley...isn't he sweet...


Well you can't tell from pictures, but he is sweet. One of the sweetest dogs EVER. And Monkey Face LOVED him...and that's saying something as dogs aren't always her thing...


We tried really hard to get a shot of all the girls with Barley to show to Uncle BakerMan, who also loves him...but Barley wasn't playing with us. He's a little old and a little sore and he just wanted to EAT or SLEEP...So Miss Baba fed him while the girls cheesed it up...


And in the end...Barley didn't want to go. He found our kitchen floor MUCH to his liking and Bubba had to lure him out with the promise of mashed potatoes...


And the next morning we dropped Grandma off and followed along beside them for a ways as they set out...


So Grandma is back in Arizona now for awhile. We expect her back some time in December for Christmas fun.

As I was putting this together, I really wanted a picture of Grandma and the girls as the closing shot. All I could find was this one...well, it's actually a set...and it would have been taken last Thursday night...but...teee heee...look at how silly it is. We call Beanie "strange-alien-child" when we see her dressed like this and I'm positive that were she another year older she wouldn't want me taking ANY pictures in this state. But as I inadvertently managed to get a whole series, I'm taking this one opportunity!! WOOOO HOOO!!! So this is for the Grandma and her goofy girls...



Look while you can, because I'm certain that when she's 13 she'll make me take it down.

See ya around...

One of these things is not like the other...

One of these things just isn't the same...



Please notice my children sitting like little lumps on the couch (they are watching Scooby Doo, if you must know). Also notice that they are ALL wearing glasses. The third thing you will not remember if you've ever met my children or followed my blog is my children ever wearing glasses other than in a sunglasses fashion sense.

Today was the last day of our first quarter break and we set out to the mall to accessorize with whatever monies they had left from their piggy banks. On the top of each of their list was a pair of fashion glasses.




Why there is a fashion that includes real LOOKING glasses eludes me. As a long time glasses sufferer...it's just not a fashion I can wrap my head around. I mean there are really cute little fake glasses out there...but I spent my childhood being called four-eyes and fearless fly (thanks Dad) and having people ask why the doctor didn't at least scrape the word "coke" off the bottle before he put my lens in the frames...who CHASES that kind of joy? ALL THREE OF MY CHILDREN.

So we were on our way to the mall this morning so that they could BUY some fake fashion glasses...But we had a slight hiccup. Something happened other than what we planned.

I have suspected for a while that Miss Bean might need glasses. I've worn glasses since I was 7...that's 32 years to hone my "I-think-you-need-glasses-radar"...but she was a weird case. She doesn't squint or rub her eyes excessively like others I've seen...she just really REALLY doesn't like to read. She does it fine. But she has some weird reversals and stuff. About 3 weeks ago, I knew we had to at least CHECK. She was having a really hard time with comprehension in her new science book unless she was reading aloud...

So I started researching insurance stuff, cuz of course it changes year to year. But I had made NO plans as of this morning. This morning we were going to the MALL not the eye doctor.

But guess what, there was an eye doctor in the mall that I just happened to know was on my new insurance...and it was one of those can-have-your-lenses-in-about-an-hour places...so we ended up with not one but TWO eye appointments. Both Bean and Bear got their eyes checked. And sure enough...Beanie needed a prescription.

The eye doctor also thought she saw something wrong with Beanie's eye so she dilated them. So pretty...sorry the lighting is so bad...I tried it a couple different ways and just couldn't get it to show HOW big her pupils were.



Turns out she also has a cataract in there. They are unsure exactly WHY it's there...possibly it's been there since birth or some injury (although I can't think of one)...so we'll be watching it but it doesn't affect her vision. If you feel like praying that it's nothing, I'd appreciate it.

Her prescription is really just for reading and it's not corrected as far as it will be, but the Doctor thought it would be better to work her up to her full prescription over six months or so.

The silver lining is, of course, Beanie didn't have to spend her money on fake fashion glasses...she got the REAL ones that mommy took care of...and they are still pretty cute...and they are green which is a huge plus for my girl right now. They are WAY cuter than my coke bottle ones of the late 1970's and early 1980's even IF my glasses had a cute kitty cat sticker...and WAY lighter...those coke bottle bottoms are HEAVY.

Her sisters still bought the fake ones. I think getting glasses might just be easier when your sisters get some too...besides she gets to say things like, "Mine are REAL and yours are just for dress up." which is ever so endearing...

So here she is with her new beautiful glasses...huh, I guess you CAN see the dinner plate sized pupils in this shot...



She's pretty happy about them and can't wait to tell her friends...I'm pretty happy to have it done, even though it made for a really long day.

Hazaar for our newest Fearless Fly...

See ya around...